Early Reunion
by Raberba girl
Summary: Alternate scenario - Valka returns to Berk when her son is 16, a year after Hiccup ended the dragon war.


Early Reunion

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Alternate scenario - Valka returns to Berk when her son is 16, a year after Hiccup ended the dragon war. Rated just to be safe.

**A/N: Some parts of this fic make more sense if you've read at least the first two stories in my "Dragon Queen of Berk" series.** (If you're on DevArt, the first story is _The Dragon Queen of Berk_, and the second story is _Names_.)

o.o.o

Valka would have expected Snoggletog to be _easier_, with all the new babies being too delightfully distracting to leave enough room for homesickness. However, after sixteen years, the opposite turned out to be true - the holidays were when she missed her old life the most.

She held out for a long time. She did, after all, love her new life dearly, and was much happier here with her dragon flock than she had ever been among her fellow humans. If it weren't for Stoick and Hiccup- Well, just Stoick, since surely her tiny, fragile child was long dead by now... If it wasn't for Stoick, it would have been easy for her to turn her back on her old life forever.

Yet despite her husband's failings, she still loved and missed him terribly, and even the deep love of her dragon soulmate could never quite banish all the grief from her heart.

The cave aerie that she and Cloudjumper shared with a Scuttleclaw family was dim and quiet. Valka lay awake for a long time, absently stroking the two sleeping newborn hatchlings who had snuggled close to her, as Cloudjumper silently kept watch on her other side. "...Hiccup would be sixteen years old now," she said softly. "Nearly seventeen. His birthday is...only two months from now..."

Cloudjumper leaned down and nosed her softly.

_"I love you,"_ she told him.

_"You're sad? Why are You sad?"_

_"My mate that I love. I miss him."_

_"Miss him miss him miss him. Go find him."_

_"No! We belong to this flock, we will stay here."_

_"You grieve and grieve and grieve for your mate. We will go find him. You will mate with him and have a new baby and be happy."_

She smiled a little. She had never been able to explain the bond between herself and her husband in a way that dragons could understand, but it didn't matter. Cloudjumper still understood quite well that she loved her mate, and that Stoick was the reason why Cloudjumper was not her one-and-only in the same way she was his. _"We can't."_

_"Why?"_

Valka didn't have an answer to that.

o.o.o.o.o

It wasn't until she saw her alpha again that she realized she had been subconsciously avoiding him. "Cloudjumper, what are you-?!"

Cloudjumper ignored her flight-direction signals and settled on a fern-covered ledge.

"C-Cloud-"

The king turned his majestic head toward her, and she quailed under his discerning gaze.

_**"...Valka."**_

She winced as he mentally called her by the name she still, even after all this time, most deeply identified herself by. _"Alpha,"_ she managed in acknowledgement, slipping off Cloudjumper's back and offering obeisance to the king.

_**"You are grieving and sad."**_

_"Anxiety, grief, dismay, shame-!"_

_**"Your other half is concerned for you."**_

Now it was mostly all shame.

_**"You miss your mate that you love."**_

_"Yes."_

_**"Go reunite with him."**_

_"I belong here! _My_ flock, _my_ nest, _my_ home!"_

_**"Yes."**_

_"..."_

The king waited patiently.

_"...I will find him, then I will come back home."_

_**"Yes."**_

_"I'm sorry."_

He assured her that he loved her and there was nothing to be sorry about. _**"Be happy."**_

_"Y...Yes."_ Dismissed, she pressed herself against her other half for a minute to comfort herself.

_"We will go find Your mate that You love,"_ Cloudjumper finally said.

"Yes," she whispered. It was one of the human words that her Stormcutter understood.

_"Then You will be happy."_

"I hope so." She wouldn't have known how to explain to Cloudjumper why she said it with a sob.

o.o.o.o.o

For a flight that could be made in less than a day, it was a long one. Valka took more rests than either she or Cloudjumper needed, and lingered at each stop more than necessary. Cloudjumper, catching on, finally started ignoring her signals to descend, and glided onward toward Berk.

"Oh, Stoick," she whispered, "I'm not ready." If it was just _him_ to look forward to, perhaps she could actually enjoy the prospect of seeing her husband again. But when seeing him again also meant having to set foot in a village she had always felt alienated in, thrust back in the midst of a war that had always sickened her, facing all the arguments and stubbornness that came along with Stoick's love... "I'm not _ready_!"

_"It will be okay, Half Of Me."_

_"Yes,"_ she agreed. Because if this little visit made her even unhappier than before, Cloudjumper would not hesitate to bring her straight back to their home where they belonged.

o.o.o.o.o

They arrived late at night. Valka almost missed it in the dark, with the rock formations having changed in sixteen years. Cloudjumper, however, remembered the island nest where his human had once been trapped, and he kept a steady course for it.

"The forest, beloved," Valka murmured, indicating the way. _"Stay away from humans with their very bad weapons."_

_"You can find Your way in the dark, alone?"_

_"I'm not helpless without you!"_ she protested, her feigned indignation unable to mask her amusement from the dragon.

_"Call for me if You need me."_

_"Yes, yes, of course."_

_"I love You."_

_"Love you love you love you."_

Even after landing among the trees well outside of town, Valka lingered, exchanging affection and reassurance with her other half. When it became apparent that her farewells had faded to mere stalling, Cloudjumper gave her a hard nudge. She patted him one last time, took a deep breath, and made her way into the village.

She was as silent and stealthy as a shadow. Not even the dozing yaks or sheep noticed her passage, much less the odd Viking or two who happened to still be wandering about at that late hour.

The chieftain's house was still roughly in the same place, though the design was markedly different than what she remembered. No surprise there; buildings in Berk were destroyed and reconstructed almost as often as their residents changed clothes.

As Valka paused outside the house, the sudden, terrible thought occurred to her that perhaps her husband was dead, too. It was hard to imagine anything getting the better of Stoick the Vast, but for all his almost superhuman strength, the man _was_ still human. Had he been killed at some point during the past sixteen years? By a dragon, by a human enemy, by an accident?

Valka nearly lost her nerve. However, she knew that Cloudjumper would just send her right back to the village if she returned to him without even trying to contact her mate, and the dragon would know if she lied to him, so...there was nothing for it. She took another deep breath, stepped closer to the door, and knocked.

As she heard heavy footsteps approaching, she backed away into the shadows, not wanting to give Stoick (if it even _was_ Stoick in there...) more of a shock than she had to. It had been sixteen years since they'd last laid eyes on each other; for all he knew, she was as dead as their son. It would be cruel to show herself to him now so unexpectedly.

The door opened. "You're back alrea-?" There was a long silence. Valka almost forgot to breathe as she drank in the sound of his voice, which was both exactly as she remembered it and jarringly different. Her memories didn't compare to reality. "...Hello?"

Valka opened her mouth, but before she could make a coherent sound, Stoick's displeased tone drowned out her attempts to speak. "The thing about the twins being gone for Snoggletog is that it means TWO WEEKS of peace and quiet, without their childish pranks. At least wait until they come back!" The hinges creaked as the door began to swing shut.

"Stoick," Valka said hurriedly.

Abrupt silence fell.

"S...Stoick."

After a long pause, she heard a pained, almost inaudible whisper.

"I wanted...to see you again, Stoick."

"Valka," Stoick called gently, as if to a dream.

Valka took a step. Stoick's attention snapped to her immediately, and they stared at each other for a minute. "...Stoick."

Slowly, he began to move in her direction, staring at her as if she was a ghost.

"S-Stoick, I- I'm sorry I- I've been away for so long, forgive me, I couldn't bear-" The almost feather-light touch of his fingertips on her skin seemed to freeze both her words and her thoughts.

"Val." She could only hear it because he was standing so close.

"I'm leaving again, soon," she said. "I just wanted-" His forehead came to rest against hers, and then there was no more need for words.

Inside, by the light of the fire, they drank each other in, silently noting changes and familiarities and beauty and love and a complete lack of anything either of them had feared to see. She thought he might have questions, he thought she might disappear again at any moment, but neither of them said anything. They kissed, and something that had been long buried was brought to the surface, they kissed again and there was hunger in their lips.

_'Is Hiccup really dead?'_ she couldn't help thinking, even in the midst of her sudden fiery eagerness. _'Is he somewhere in-?'_ She found that she didn't want to know yet. There was time enough for her heart to break again with fresh grief...afterward.

o.o.o.o.o

It was over disappointingly quickly, but no matter. They both decided without speaking, agreeing through facial expression alone, that of course there would be another round as soon as possible, more savory and less mindlessly frantic this time.

As they waited, she didn't bother to part from him, and gazed at him while tracing her fingertips over his face, enjoying the sensation of his hands stroking over her bare skin.

"...I guess that answers that question, then," he finally said.

"Hmm?"

"A man can't make love to a dream or a ghost," he chuckled. "Not like _that_."

She smiled. "I missed this. I didn't realize how _much_."

"...Just 'this'?"

She leaned down to kiss him as slowly and deeply as she was planning to make love to him soon. "I missed _you_." _'I remember now why Half Of Me must share my heart with you, beloved. I will never forget again.'_

Even after their lips broke apart, he continued to kiss her, and she craned her head to give him better access to her neck and shoulder. "Stoick..."

"Val..."

The utter silence of the rest of the house had finally grown too intrusive to ignore. Valka sighed and straightened up again, her heart aching as she met her husband's questioning gaze.

"Val?"

"Stoick," she said in a low voice. She hadn't wanted to ask yet, but she couldn't wait anymore. Despite the pain it would bring to have her fears confirmed, she had to know. "When...when did he die?"

His brow furrowed in confusion and mild alarm. "Who died?"

"How old was he?" she whispered. "H...Hiccup. How long...how long did my baby live?"

He stared at her in such surprise that she thought her heart might break just from the dread alone. Then the smile that broke across his face left her breathless. "Val!"

She held back a sob, staring at him, silently imploring him to _tell her_.

"Val, he's fine. He's alive, of course he's alive, Val!"

Her voice was shaking. "Alive-?! Where is he?!" Surely she would have heard the boy by now if he was in the house?!

"He's gone for Snoggletog," Stoick said gently, stroking her side in an effort to calm her. "Don't worry, they'll be back any day now." His face was practically shining with delight. "Valka! The war is over, Val! For over a year now. You would be _so proud_ of him, Val! He's the one who ended the war, you know; _Hiccup_, our son!"

She smiled hard, knowing it probably failed at hiding her horror and grief. Had every last dragon been killed, or had any managed to escape the slaughter? Did Hiccup's 'ending' the war mean that he had butchered untold numbers of them, or simply scored the final victory? She was the one who had brought such a deadly killer into this world; did that mean that some of the massacre had been her fault?

"Val, why are you crying?!"

"I-" She couldn't force any words out through the tightness in her throat. "I..."

"Valka." He pushed himself upright and took her face into his hands. So, so gentle, as if those same bare hands had never crushed a Deadly Nadder's skull or broken a Monstrous Nightmare's neck or maimed and ended the lives of countless others. "Valka. Dearest. Everything is all right now."

_'Yes,'_ she thought bitterly. _'Because after I've had my fill tonight, I can leave Berk once more, and this time I will have no reason to look back.'_

The sex this time was rather more aggressive than she had originally intended. The third time around was when they finally seemed to strike the right note, as her grief softened and she remembered that there was at least a portion of this man that she genuinely loved, no matter how much pain the darker side of him caused her. It was why she was unable to bring herself to leave him the way she had wanted to, the reason why she so easily allowed him to persuade her to stay in his arms afterward.

_'Just this one night,'_ she thought to herself as Stoick fell into an exhausted, contented sleep. _'This one night only, Stoick, I am still yours.'_ She nestled more deeply into his embrace and silently bid her husband farewell as she drifted into a doze.

She did not allow herself to fall truly asleep. A short time later, before dawn, Valka began to work herself free of Stoick's hold. Unfortunately, even her more careful efforts weren't enough to avoid rousing him, and he watched her get dressed with such a warm, loving expression that she could only hold onto her resolve by refusing to look at him at all.

"Valka," he murmured happily. "You came back to me."

"Stoick," she murmured back. She couldn't say anything else.

When he realized that she was heading toward the door, he sat up with a frown. "Val?"

"I left something out there," she said. "Something important. In...in the woods. I'll - I'll be back." It was more difficult to lie than she expected. She ducked out the door, trying not to run.

o.o.o.o.o

Valka was halfway back to her partner when she realized, with a shock of dismay, that the man she thought she had left behind forever was following her. "Stoick?!"

"You're so fast," he chuckled, struggling through a narrow section of the deer path toward her. "And so quiet! You're a difficult woman to track, Val."

"S-Stoick, I, uhm, why did you...?"

He frowned as he caught up to her, and took her hand. "What's wrong, Val?"

"Nothing..."

He gave her hand a squeeze to show that he knew she was hiding something. It startled her to see how well he could read her, just like...just like Cloudjumper could. Speaking of which, there was no way she could return to her partner now, not with a Viking in tow. Valka exhaled in frustration.

After studying her for a moment, Stoick smiled in a conciliatory way and said, "The cove's not far from here."

Valka blinked, startled at the mention of their old lovers' haunt.

Stoick chuckled. "It's Hiccup's now, you know. One of his favorite places to disappear to when he wants a quiet hour with Toothless, or with-" he winked, "-his girlfriend."

Valka's eyes widened - she was intrigued despite everything. "Hiccup is-?" Well, of course he was; the lad was nearly seventeen years old, wasn't he? He'd probably even be getting married soon, if he hadn't already. It sent a pang through her, the sudden sharp reminder of how much she had missed.

"Astrid Hofferson," Stoick said gently, apparently picking up on his wife's turmoil. "The pick of the island." He paused, then laughed a little. "Even if there _were_ more than just two girls his age, she'd still be the pick of the island. Beautiful _and_ brave _and_ smart, quite the master warrior. You'll like her, Val."

"Yes," Valka said shortly, feeling sick. A master warrior bride for her master warrior son. The girl's kill count probably rivaled his. A perfect match. Valka wished now that she had been allowed to keep remembering her child as the innocent babe she had last seen him as, rather than this horrible new picture in her mind of a hulking, muscle-bound youth stained with the blood of her true people. _'I should never have come back to Berk.'_

"I left a note for Gobber," Stoick finally said, sounding more uncertain now. "He and Spitelout can handle things for the morning, especially with Snotlout and the Thorston twins gone. Do you...want to go to the cove for a few hours? Or do you want to go back to the village?"

_'I want to go _home_.'_ "...Let's go to the cove," she said softly. The last thing she wanted to do was face the other villagers again. "For old times' sake." She managed what she hoped was a passable smile.

Stoick gave her a small smile in return. "It's good to have you back, Val."

It happened again, in the peaceful, quiet beauty of this place that held such painfully sweet memories. Valka, sitting beside the lake with her long-lost human mate, began to doubt herself again, wondering if being here was really so bad. _'He doesn't know...none of them do. When something incites the poor creatures to prey on a village's livelihood, can you blame the humans for defending themselves?'_ If only Vikings weren't so _stubborn_, so quick to violence-

Valka was abruptly broken out of her thoughts. In the middle of Stoick's cheerful rambling, she gasped and leaped to her feet, her eyes fixed on the sky where what looked like an entire dragon flock was flying. "Stoick!" she cried in a panic, "Stoick, no, please, their _babies_, not this time, Stoick I beg you-!"

"Val, Val, calm down. Calm down, love, sshh, calm down."

It took her a while to even register what he was saying, and then she stared at him, astonished at how _calm_ the chieftain was. Dragons in the sky, heading straight for the village, yet he hadn't even reached for his axe yet!

"What's wrong, Val?" he asked in concern.

Had he not _seen_ them, this flock streaming past with their hatchlings in tow?! But no, impossible, they were making such a racket-

Stoick, his eyes now turned upward as well, startled her when he _grinned_. "Heh. Looks like they've decided to stop for some 'alone time' on the way. Too bad we're already here, eh?"

"What?! What are you talking about?!"

Wing beats sounded above them, far closer than the rest of the flock's. Probably a Deadly Nadder, judging from the tone of- Valka whirled around, then stared at the utterly nonsensical sight of A VIKING swinging down from the back of A DRAGON as _casually_ as if such a thing were _commonplace_! The Nadder even wore a SADDLE!

"Chief?" the young Viking woman was saying in surprise and a bit of dismay as she strode toward them. Valka was too stunned to notice the younger woman's beauty, confident posture, intelligent expression, apparent age, or the well-worn and well-cared for weapon slung across her back, much less to add up these clues to the girl's identity.

_"Foreign human,"_ the Nadder chirped with interest, heading straight for Valka to investigate her. _"Ah. You are Queen's dam. He will be very happy. Not-baby humans and their parents still very much love each other, I don't know why."_

Valka barely registered these confusing remarks, either. She was patting the dragon more out of habit than conscious thought, wondering why in the world no one had started attacking it yet.

The Viking girl was eyeing Valka and probably asking about her, but Valka didn't notice. She was too fixated on the sound and sight of what had to be a NIGHT FURY diving through the sky above them.

"Show off," Astrid chuckled, her expression affectionate as she watched. Stoick was smiling as well, though he watched Valka rather than the Night Fury.

After completing the truly spectacular aerial move, which had no purpose Valka could discern other than sheer joy of flying, the black dragon swooped straight into the cove to land-

_This one had a human on its back, too._ Valka wondered if she was dreaming.

"Hey Dad-" As soon as the small, slender, auburn-haired youth started to dismount, he went tumbling off the dragon's back with a yelp of surprise. The Night Fury, alarmed, turned to look at his rider- "Ack!"

Stoick and Astrid burst out laughing as the heir to the Hooligan tribe, his one remaining ankle tangled up in the dragon's flight gear, got dragged through the dirt as if he was an extra tail. The more Toothless frantically whirled around, trying to figure out where the heck his human was, the more helpless Hiccup was to escape his predicament.

_"Half Of Me, where are You?! I can smell You and hear You but I can't see You?!"_

"DAD! It's not funny! A little help here?!"

Still amused, Stoick automatically went to try to help his son, and Astrid automatically went to try to calm down the dragon. Toothless, sensing his partner's distress, ignored Astrid and kept breaking free of her hold in his fruitless search for Hiccup, and Stoick wasn't much use to a boy he couldn't catch.

"SWITCH PLACES!" Hiccup screamed in exasperation. "Dad, _hold_ him! Astrid, I need you _here_!"

When Stoick's massive arms closed firmly around the dragon, Toothless barked indignantly and struggled, but couldn't break loose. Stoick, though straining with the effort, managed to keep the Night Fury still long enough for Astrid to inspect the lines, Hiccup to awkwardly sit up and direct her, Astrid to try untangling the mess for a while without any success, and finally for Hiccup to throw his hands in the air and give up.

"Whatever! Just, here, let me- Please move, Astrid; I'm just gonna cut it."

"Won't it be ruined?"

"I'll just make a new one. _Argh_..." Hiccup sawed at the rigging holding his foot prisoner, his face burning red as he avoided looking at the strange woman who was watching his humiliation. Unfortunately, he was at a bad angle and couldn't get much strength behind his efforts, so progress was slow.

"Here, Hiccup, let me."

Hiccup groaned, but handed the knife to his girlfriend and then flopped back into the dirt, utterly defeated. _'Hiccup, the mighty dragon conqueror. Yep, that's me all right. Not what you expected, huh.'_

"Got it!" Astrid proclaimed triumphantly, breaking through the last of the rigging that bound him.

Freed at last, Toothless pounced eagerly on his friend like a cat trying to make _sure_ that its prey can't escape this time.

"Ow ow _ow_, Toothless!"

_"Sorry sorry love You love You love You so muuuuuch,"_ Toothless insisted, practically coating the boy's face with slobber.

"Toothleeeesss, _no_, your spit doesn't wash out...!"

At last, Toothless sat back and happily looked down at the young Viking.

Hiccup, flat on his back on the ground with crazily-gelled hair and a very wet face and collar, crossed his arms. "Finished?" he pouted.

Toothless made a smug croaking sound.

"This is my son, Hiccup," Stoick introduced the boy proudly, and Hiccup's face flamed red again.

Valka was nearly in tears from relief and delight. This was her son, he was _unmistakably_ her son, from his build to his eyes to the fact that by some miracle, _a dragon had become the other half of his heart_. This _had_ to be a dream, such a wonderful one.

"Hi," Hiccup mumbled, climbing slowly to his feet and too embarrassed to even look at the stranger. He had to force himself to approach close enough to greet her - and was startled when she reached out to him, seeming entirely heedless of the dragon spit as she stroked the side of his face and beamed at him.

"Ohh, Hiccup..."

"I- Uh, sorry about the, uh... He does that sometimes." At that moment, Toothless went right up to Valka and started sniffing at her. "Whoa!" Hiccup shoved at Toothless, trying to push him away from the woman. "Hey, what have I told you about bugging new people, huh?"

_"This is Half Of Me's dam, He will _very_ much like it, not-baby humans and their parents still love each other, I don't know why,"_ Toothless said happily, echoing Stormfly's earlier conclusions.

To Hiccup's surprise, instead of being in the least alarmed by a Night Fury invading her personal space, the woman seemed delighted. "C-Can I...?" she asked eagerly, her hands already starting to reach out even as she looked to Hiccup for permission. "Ohh, he's _beautiful_~" she purred, greeting Toothless and rubbing her face against his. He seemed as pleased to see her as she was to see him. "I've never seen a Night Fury this close, I think he may very well be the last of his kind... And look! He's your age!"

The teenagers were staring at her in astonishment. Stoick was smiling joyfully as he watched his beloved wife interacting so happily with their son's closest companion.

"Retractable teeth!" Valka gasped, not hesitating to stick her head right into the dragon's mouth for a better look. "Ohh, that's why you call him 'Toothless,' isn't it," she laughed, petting the Night Fury affectionately. He warbled and rubbed his head against her.

"Who, um, who are you?" Hiccup asked, pleasantly confused.

Valka looked up at him, suddenly shy, subconsciously leaning closer into the dragon for comfort.

Stoick stooped and placed one arm around his son, setting the other hand on his wife's shoulder. "Hiccup," he said gently, "this is my wife, Valka. She's your mother."

For a second, Hiccup seemed to have no reaction, though something must have changed in his scent because both dragons looked at him in concern. Then his breath hitched and his face went pale, and whatever he tried to say was lost in an incoherent stammer. Toothless gave an anxious whine and nudged Hiccup away, the dragon's body now between the boy and his parents. Hiccup set his hands on Toothless to steady himself, and left them there even after he'd regained his footing.

"Should I go, Hiccup?" Astrid asked quietly, watching him as intently as the dragons were.

When Hiccup didn't answer, Stoick murmured, "Aye, lass. I'm sure they're needing you back at the village to..._keep things quiet_."

Whatever he meant on the surface, the added implication was clear, and Astrid nodded. She paused by Hiccup, intending at first to simply kiss his cheek, but although he had wiped it dry of dragon saliva, she found herself going for his lips instead. Some of it was just that his lips had escaped the brunt of the licking and were therefore cleaner, but she also realized that on some level, she was marking her territory. _'No matter what might change from now on,'_ she thought at Valka, _'I'm still his girlfriend.'_

"See you later," Hiccup murmured.

"Mm. Love you, babe," Astrid murmured back. She turned to Stormfly and swung easily into the saddle. With an encouraging, "Come on, girl," they were away.

Almost the second they got airborne, half of an incoming troop of Terrible Terrors flocked around her with happy greeting screeches. Astrid's own screeches of protest were good-natured as she batted them away. "I'm _flying_, sillies! Go bother someone who has time to play with you!"

_"Queen Queen Consort Queen Human Queen Human Foreigner~"_ the Terrors chattered with great interest. As they descended, there was an outraged squawk from one of Toothless's saddle bags, and another Terror climbed out from where he had apparently been napping. He snapped at the Terror that was about to claim Hiccup's shoulders and then settled himself on the prime perching spot instead.

"Hey, Sharpshot," Hiccup murmured, absently caressing the saddle bag Terror's head in a gesture that looked more like he was comforting himself than the little dragon. The Terror licked his fingers and went back to lounging.

Valka watched the hierarchical way some of the other Terrors arranged themselves on Hiccup, one of them perching on his head and three of them squirming for a good position in his arms and one investigating his pockets as it balanced on his belt. In contrast, the ones who had decided to roost on her or Stoick instead seemed to simply be going on a first-come, first-serve basis. (The ones who attempted to use Toothless were immediately shaken off.)

_"Why is he preferred?"_ Valka asked the Terrors curiously. She would have expected Stoick, with his much larger frame, to be more appealing.

_"Metal Thing gets Him first because they are friends!"_ Now that she looked, the Terror which Hiccup had called Sharpshot _did_ have a small metal canister attached to his leg. _"Highest ranks get the rest of Him."_

Valka was astonished. The brief purr they had used to indicate Hiccup was similar to, but slightly different than, the one Toothless used. It was, in fact, the same one Stormfly had used, the term of address that had so perplexed Valka at first.

Her son was not simply a friend of dragons. Somehow, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III had become _a dragon queen_, the ruler of a flock, perhaps even the very same flock that had tormented Berk for centuries.

_"My male offspring that I love, my 'son,' he is your _queen_?!"_

_"Very so much better queen than SHE was,"_ Toothless said smugly. _"And I am consort, I am the best consort, He's strong because He's with me. We don't don't don't hurt each other anymore, we are a very good and strong dragon-and-human flock with this VERY good queen who loves us."_

Valka laughed in amazed delight, realizing that she had completely misunderstood - Hiccup hadn't ended the war through slaughter after all. He must have ended it by somehow stealing this entire flock away from whatever tyrant queen had been forcing them to provoke the humans. He was lovely and _brilliant_, she loved him even more now than she had ever thought possible, and Stoick was right, she was so proud of their son that she didn't know how her heart could contain such intensity of feeling.

"Are you...are you _talking_ to them?" Hiccup asked cautiously. Like her, he was apparently more comfortable letting his fascination with dragons distract him than trying to dwell on things he didn't want to think about. "I mean, you know, not _talking_ talking, like, you know, with words, but, um-"

"Yes," she said, finally realizing that he was hoping she would jump in soon and save him from his adorable difficulty articulating the question. "Yes, I...that's where I've been. For the past sixteen years. Living with...dragons, learning their ways, how to speak to them and listen to them in their own language..."

"He really did take after you, Val," Stoick said affectionately.

"You've been _living_ with dragons?" Hiccup whispered, a mix of resentment, envy, and excitement tumbling across his face.

"Yes...my - my companion, he..." It would be best to just show them. Valka fought down an irrational anxiety that her other half would be in danger if he came to her, and she called him, raking her staff.

When Cloudjumper came to a majestic landing in the cove, Valka was captivated for a moment by her beautiful other half. It wasn't often that she was far enough away from him and at leisure to simply admire him.

Stoick, on the other hand, stiffened in dismay for the first time since he had laid eyes on his long-lost wife the night before. The Stormcutter was a creature that haunted his nightmares, the one dragon he had still not forgiven. It had ruined his life, yet how could he raise a hand against it when his wife looked so enraptured to see it...?

Hiccup and Toothless were both drawn to the four-winged dragon like night insects to fire. Toothless bounced around, puppy-like in his eagerness to investigate this strange and cool foreigner, but not quite daring to be too intrusive. It never occurred to Hiccup to ask his mother's permission before touching her dragon, but he did at least ask permission of the Stormcutter himself, reaching up with an awed expression. To Valka, her son looked like a small child in that moment, full of innocence and wonder, and she felt breathless with love for him.

Cloudjumper lowered his head to sniff at the boy and allow those small hands to gently stroke his hide. He took in the incredible fact of this young human's flock leadership, sifting through the scent-marks of flocklings who respected and adored this strange queen despite all the odds stacked against him. _"This is Your child that You love so much,"_ the Stormcutter realized. _"I understand now. I'm glad You have found him that You love again."_

Valka beamed, tears in her eyes.

_"My human is the very most special human,"_ Toothless asserted, but humbly cut his boasting short when Cloudjumper gave him a cool look and then returned his attention to Hiccup.

"You're sooooo big," Hiccup murmured, stroking the Stormcutter's frills and examining his tail fins and practically climbing between his wings with all the delight Valka had felt upon discovering Toothless's tooth retraction ability. "You have fooouuur wings, that is sooooo cool-!" He froze, suddenly realizing how much he was geeking out and wondering whether or not it lowered his estimation in the eyes of this woman he couldn't help wanting to impress.

"That dragon took you away from us," Stoick murmured, so quietly that only his wife could hear him.

She took his hand and clasped it gently. "He was only doing what he thought was best for me. He loves me as much as you do, Stoick."

"Can't say I think much of having a rival," Stoick grumbled.

Valka pressed a little kiss to his cheek. "Both of you, and Hiccup, are all very dear to me. I love each of you in a different way."

"Look at Hiccup, climbing all over that beast of yours. His cousin waves a clenched fist at him and he cowers, but put him within biting range of a dragon and he's fearless..." Stoick shook his head with a helpless chuckle. "Took a while for me to get used to seeing my son joined at the hip with a _Night Fury_, of all things, and I'm still not used to these mad stunts he keeps pulling." Stoick gave his wife a sad smile. "A lifetime of conditioning...and fear...are not easy to erase, Val."

"Hiccup has wonderful instincts. You can trust him."

"He makes it very difficult sometimes..."

They had to walk back to the village, because the poor Night Fury was missing a tail fin and his flying gear was now damaged, and Stoick's dragon had been in the migration with the rest of the flock.

"Stoick the Vast, don't tell me YOU have a _dragon partner_!" Valka cried in delighted astonishment. It was a wonderful, absolutely lovely idea, but she couldn't believe it even though Stoick himself had just told her.

"Aye, I do," her husband said proudly. "Thornado's a spirited beast, quite suitable for a mighty Viking chief, eh?"

"He's a Thunderdrum," Hiccup piped up. "They got off on the wrong foot, but Dad really did manage to train him in the end. The two of them teamed up and took down a whole herd of crazy demon boars!"

"They weren't demon boars, Hiccup."

"How else do you explain a bunch of mostly-plant-eaters with red glowing eyes aggressively attacking a giant human and a powerful dragon?!"

"Well...they _were_ a pretty odd and persistent herd, I'll give you that..."

Valka's first real sight of Berk, in the daylight and now filled with its resident dragons, moved her to quiet tears. She sat on the roof of her family's home, tucked under Cloudjumper's wings with a baby Gronckle asleep in her lap, and she just _looked_ for a very long time. There were dragons wandering peacefully along the paths, dragons perching on structures that had been made specifically for that purpose, dragons in flight or working together with their human partners, dragons being fed and happy and loved and well-cared for...

"This is a beautiful flock," Valka whispered.

Her husband had come up to join her when he had a spare moment. He put his arm around her and held her close. "Aye, that it is," he said softly. "All your son's doing, Val. We did pretty well with this one."

"I'm so... Stoick, I'm so sorry I wasn't there for him. For either of you."

"We have you now," he murmured, nuzzling her hair.

"I wish I had come back sooner."

"Might have done more harm than good. Ever since you left, it was just more of the same strife and bloodshed and struggle to survive, over and over again. This past year is the first year that things have been different. The first good, truly _good_ year I have ever known."

"Stoick..." It was difficult to say now that she knew what Berk was really like, but the longer she put it off, the harder it would be. "Stoick, this was once my home, but for sixteen years, I have had a different home as well. I love you and Hiccup, but there are people I love _there_ as well. Dragons, I mean. That northern nest is still my home, Stoick. Alpha is still my king that I love, and...I don't know what I'm going to do now."

Stoick was quiet for a long time, his arm tightening protectively around his wife. At last he said, "You don't have to make any decisions yet."

Nestled in the warmth between the two people she loved most, Valka nodded.

o.o.o.o.o

In any case, it seemed to be a given that she would spend that night in the chieftain's house again, this time with Cloudjumper and Thornado sleeping right outside, and Hiccup and Toothless adding a lively depth to the home.

"Here, watch this, Mom." Hiccup offered the stick he was holding to his Night Fury, and said, "Toothless! Draw!"

Toothless eagerly snatched up the stick in his mouth, pressed the chalk end of it to the floor, then started dragging it. Although he looked hilariously awkward with the stick gripped in his mouth, his actual movements were as graceful as a dancer's, and the humans laughed as they ducked under or away from the dragon's heedlessly flailing tail and wings. Once Toothless had finished his masterpiece, he dropped the stick and bared his gums at Hiccup in a human-like grin.

"Toothless is an _artist_," Hiccup told his mother, both proud and amused.

Thoughtfully, Valka stepped up onto a chair so she could look down at the dragon's markings from a higher vantage point. _"Safe warm fun happy with Half Of Me and our aeriemates that we love,"_ she interpreted.

Her husband and son both stared at her for a minute. "W- Wait a second, _what_?!" Hiccup sputtered. "He _wrote_ something?! I thought it was just scribbles!"

She laughed. "Usually they only use markings for essential communication and businesslike messages - flock identification, territory boundaries, information about food or threats, and such. _Usually_."

"Toothless! Toothless!" Hiccup snatched up the chalk stick and scrawled a message. Catching onto his excitement, Toothless hopped and wriggled and got in the way. "Look, Toothless! These are _my_ marks. It says, _My mother came back home today. Now my whole family is together_. See, Toothless? These are _letters_."

Valka blinked back tears and smiled as she translated for the dragon.

Toothless went still, staring at her and then at the words Hiccup had written. _"Human scribbles. They don't mean anything; Half Of Me makes them to play."_

_"No, they do have meaning,"_ Valka said.

They eventually had to give up trying to explain when it became clear that Toothless simply could not wrap his head around the idea. _"Half Of Me is crazy, but it's okay,"_ he said dismissively.

Seeing that written words were a lost cause, at least for the moment, Hiccup went back to art, sketching a picture of his dragon. "Look, Toothless. That's you! That's you, see?"

Toothless looked at the picture politely.

_"Son looked at you and took what he saw and moved it there into that chalk on the ground,"_ Valka tried to explain, having difficulty translating the concepts.

Again, Toothless stared back and forth between her and Hiccup and the drawing. _"See me?! Chalk?! Confusing!"_

_"Look,"_ Valka crooned, crouching to point out to the dragon which parts were limbs and eyes and so forth. _"It's you!"_

_"Not me! Not me! I'm _here_, not _there_!"_ Toothless huffed in frustration and sat down squarely on top of the picture. _"Silly human scribbles."_ The humans had a good laugh a little later, when Toothless stood back up again and wandered around the room totally unconcerned about the smudges of chalk now adorning his butt.

Gradually, they all grew more quiet and drowsy. The adults were leaning together in a very cozy, comfortable way. "How big is he?" Hiccup asked sleepily as he snuggled closer into Toothless, who was now serving as his lounge pillow.

"Vast," Valka murmured, "big enough to ice over this whole island in a few minutes. But He's so kind and good and wise, you look into His eyes and it's almost as if He reads your heart, I love my alpha so much..." Stoick started casting about for something to change the subject with. "I'll take you to see Him someday, Hiccup," Valka went on dreamily. "You'll love each other, I know you will."

"Tell us more about this Dragon Master of yours," Stoick said, a little desperate.

"He calls _himself_ that," Valka pouted, "and I don't want to talk about _that man_ tonight. It's Snoggletog and I'm with my human family again for the first time in sixteen years. We'll talk about him later, when we've decided how we're going to take him down."

"Oh, so I did agree to allying with your dragon alpha king, then?" Stoick said playfully. "I don't recall actually saying that." Of course he would help Valka, of _course_ he would, but he did want to at least take stock of his resources and have some plans in place before officially committing.

"Of course you agreed, you just don't remember, dear," Valka murmured back, also playfully.

There was a long silence.

"...Hiccup, are you asleep?"

"Mnh?" Hiccup murmured, blinking out of his doze.

"You look tired, son. Why don't you go on up to bed?" Stoick suggested.

"Yeah," Hiccup breathed, his eyes already closed again, "in a minute..." He grumbled when Toothless got up and started nosing at him. "Leave me alone...lie down again and let me sleep on you..."

Toothless gently forced the boy to his feet and started nudging him up the stairs toward their room. "Night, Dad," Hiccup called. "Oh...night, Mom," he added, a little hesitantly.

"Good night, Hiccup," Stoick called back. Valka got to her feet and went up to her boy and wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly for a long time.

"...I'm really glad you're here, Mom," Hiccup finally whispered into her tunic.

She kissed the top of his head and then helped him into bed, trying not to linger too much on removing the prosthetic. His eyes widened in a brief moment of wakefulness, and he didn't pull away but he watched her, shoulders hunched and head ducked, as she touched the scars on what was left of his leg. After a moment, she smiled and patted his knee, tucked the blanket around him, and leaned down to kiss him again. "I love you, son."

"Love you too, Mom."

Toothless nuzzled Valka good night and gave an extra-loving nuzzle to Hiccup as well, then went to get settled on his own bed.

Valka returned downstairs to her husband. After a long time, when she hoped Hiccup had had enough time to fall asleep, she asked in a low voice, "How did it happen?" She tried not to sound accusatory. After she herself had been completely absent for so much of Hiccup's life, it wasn't fair to hold Stoick responsible for being unable to keep their son in one piece in the meantime.

"His leg?" Stoick absently tended the fire. "He's a hero, Val. That, that _thing_ he was up against... Well, all things considered, it wasn't too bad price to pay."

"My baby," she choked out, but was unable to finish.

"He's said himself that it was worth it," Stoick said gently, "that he'd do it all over again even if he knew what the consequences would be." Then, after a pause, "Would you give up one of your legs if it was the only way to save your Cloudjumper? Not to mention me or Hiccup or the rest of the village- Or your 'flock'?"

She cried a little then. "I should have come back sooner, Stoick...!"

He tried to distract her with more stories of Hiccup's successes and adventures, and it seemed to work after a while. She laughed when he described Hiccup's tricks in Dragon Training that he had learned from Toothless in secret, and horrified as she was at the idea of her son and a captive Monstrous Nightmare being pitted against each other in a fight to the death, she smiled to hear about how easily Hiccup had been befriending the creature before Stoick had interfered.

"I swear to you, Valka, that thing was roaring for blood and blasting out fire and raging around the arena one minute - and the next minute, Hiccup practically had it eating out of his hand! Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I'd just let him be..."

"That hot head of yours does seem to have cooled a bit after all these years, dear. I think I like the change."

"Do you, now?" he murmured playfully, nibbling at her ear. She giggled and batted him lightly away, then gave him a coy look. Stoick cast a glance up at the loft where Hiccup slept. "...We're going to have to be a lot quieter tonight."

"I can't make any promises," she laughed, "but I'll try."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: The HTTYD TV show is really hit or miss... Some parts are really cool, but some parts, like the demon boar scene, are really dumb. *sweatdrop* Although boars will eat small animals and abandoned kills, 90% of their diet is plant-based. Which is why it made absolutely no sense for the boars in that scene to act so aggressive, violent, and persistent toward a large, super-strong human like Stoick, and a dangerous predator like Thornado. *sweatdrop*

I really was working on more important stuff (in both real life and fandom), but I don't know what happened with this fic. It's an idea I've had for a long time, but last night it started writing itself in my head, and I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. compulsively drafting it. Wrote more this morning when I was supposed to be getting ready for work, then finished it after I came home from work.

Now that this impulsive one-shot is done, I plan to return to cleaning up my real life and working on the HTTYD1 story arc of _His Soul Reflects My Own_. (_A Small Addition To Berk's Flock_ finally came out as the fic with the most votes, but I'll still keep at HSRMO for a while since I've already started on it. _Small Addition_ will be next on my list, though, unless the votes change drastically in the meantime.)


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